1996-21
The problem addressed by this survey is the lack of a list of currently available aerometric data files, along with a list of their variables, formats, and completeness. This report inventories and evaluates the ASCII data files delivered to me either electronically or by MSDOS disks The intention is to help NCPTT managers make decisions on future action with NAPAP projects and data.
Aerometric data for a particular site were intended to be collected hourly for months or years. The files received divide into two groups covering 1984-1986 and 1988-1994. Each group is examined in a separate section. Data were collected for three years (1984-1986) at four sites in Washington DC, North Carolina, New Jersey, and New York and one year (1986) in Ohio. The first batch of files cover seven of the nine total years for NC, NJ, and NY. After I made some minor adjustments, each file contains data for one year in a uniform format with 4 identifiers (site, year, day, hour) and 14 data variables Two-or three-letter codes are known for all the data variables but some (such as ‘DP’) still need interpretation. Even though there is one line for each hour of the site-years covered, individual variables are missing none to all of their values for a particular year. Section 1.4 report details for each variable.
The second group of later data has three batches of files. The ‘INDE’ batch has monthly .IND’ and .CRX’ files for 1988-1991. While the file formats are easily determined by visual inspection, the meaning of these terms and the names of the variables represented by each data column are not known to me. Files of a second batch, from Washington DC, cover various numbers of days in 1991. Again, variable names are not presently available. The third batch comprises monthly files for WDC 1989 to mid 1993 and NY 1992 to mid 1994 The names and units are known for all variables except for two status variables in the WDC sub-batch.
In all three batches in this group, most files are missing some to most of the hours during the period covered. Though some of the monthly files are complete, others are empty dummy files that merely serve as missing-month markers. In addition, individual variables are occasionally missing even when the rest of the data for an hour are present, but this has not been examined in detail.
Sections of the data with known variables are sufficiently complete to be potentially useful to someone. I believe NCPTT should consider making these Funding for this report was provided by the National Park Services National Center for Preservation Technology and Training. NCPTT promotes and enhances the preservation of prehistoric and historic resources in the United States for present and future generations through the advancement and dissemination of preservation technology and training available ‘as-is’ to the outside scientific community. Other sections are empty or close enough to empty so as to be worthless. The batches without variable names can at best be kept on hold until such time as the variable names are obtained. Recommendations for further analyses by NCPTT would require further discussion with NCPTT and an inventory of the briquette studies.
For future projects, I recommend that NCPTT (and NPS also) attend more to the completeness and documentation of the data received Documentation includes methods of data collection and preliminary data reduction and explanations for missing data as well as the file formats, variables, and units.
Related Products: 1998-30 Description and Analysis of NAPAP Briquette Surface Chemistry Files